Vampire Queen

Chapter 10: Ava

        I stretched my arms out expecting to hit Jade, her side of the bed was empty. She probably had to go home before the sun came up, which means James is gone too. I groaned and rolled over to the other pillow when my face hit a piece of paper.

                        Ava,

                                    We had to leave before sunrise. Chase is still in the guestroom, and Karter and Jess got home before we left. I don’t want you to panic, but James sensed Kyle last night, he was watching the house from a distance. We were able to come up with a plan to hopefully lead him away from you so we can sneak you off to the cottage tonight. You and Chase will drive over after lunch, then Karter and Jess will come over after sunset.

                                                            See you soon!

                                                                        Jade

            Looking at my phone, it was just after 10am. Karter and Jessica would be in bed by now, so I rolled out and went into my bathroom to shower and get ready. Once I was dry and dressed, I went downstairs and found Chase in the kitchen making omelets. I sat down at the counter as he slid a plate over to me.

            “After breakfast you need to pack a second bag of clothes, and make sure to bring some perfume.” He told me as he sat down with his own plate.

            “Why do I need another bag of clothes?”

            “Not sure, James told me to tell you. They’ll explain it when we get there this afternoon.”

            After breakfast, we went up to my room and packed my bags. It didn’t make any sense to back a second bag since we’re only gone until Sunday late night/Monday early morning. This could be due to their plan that they need to share with us. Chase was lounging on my bed while I packed, once I was done, I was pacing around the house.

            “Do you want to leave now?” He asked me.

            “Sure, if that’s what you want to do at least.” I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed my bags.

            He chuckled, “I’m good either way, but it’s obviously what you want to do, so let’s go.” He took my bags from me and walked downstairs, and I followed closely behind. He dropped my bags off by the door and went into the guestroom to grab his own bag. I made sure I had all the things I needed for the weekend, while Chase took all the bags out to his car. I followed him out and locked the door behind me. As I got into the car, Chase hung up his phone and drove off towards the castle.

            “I let James know that we were coming early, he seemed happy with that idea.”

            “I want this weekend over with,” I sighed.

            We sat in silence for the rest of the drive. When we pulled up to the gate, we were let inside and parked inside the garage next to James’s car. Both Jade and James were waiting for us once we got out of the car. We all walked inside, not wanting to say anything yet. We gathered in Jade’s living space for them to tell us the plan.

            “We talked to Karter and Jessica this morning, and they’re on board.” Jade started.

            “Our parents are on board to help as well.” James added.

            “And what exactly is the plan?” I looked between Jade and James until one of them was willing to talk.

            James took a deep breath and continued talking. “Jessica and our mom are going to disguise themselves as you for the weekend. They will wear your clothes and use your perfume so we can trick Kyle into believing you’re still here in the city. Jessica will stay at your place; mom will stay here.”

            “The two places we mentioned in front of Kyle that I would be.”

            “If this works, he will have no idea that we’re taking you out of the city. We’ll have warriors stationed at both places, but Joel and Ben will still be at the cottage with us.” James was watching me carefully as he spoke.

            “You’re sure they’ll be safe from Kyle?” I didn’t like the idea of Jessica and Lilith putting themselves in danger for my sake.

            “They’ll be safe. There’s no way Kyle would attempt anything here; Karter and Jessica have a plan set up in case he shows up there. They didn’t tell us what they were going to do, but they seem confident that nothing bad will happen.” Jade tried to calm my nerves, but it wasn’t really working. I nodded my head and excused myself. Being around everyone was making me feel anxious.

            I went to the library and found a comfortable couch to stretch out on and pulled out the guidebook; I took it everywhere with me since I found it. It would be nice to leave the coven city and meet some new species. We did business with some magical covens, and some werewolf packs that were close by, there was even a human city near by, who knew about the supernatural world as well. Since my parents died, I never felt the need to leave Midknight, it was my home, and leaving here felt like I was leaving them.

            “You’re still reading over that book I see.” James crouched down next to me and smiled. I sat up and moved over so he could sit down instead of being on the floor.

            “There’s something about it that intrigues me.”

            “Can I have a look?” He held his hand out for the book and I handed it over to him. Our fingers brushed against each other for a quick second, but that was long enough for the electric shock to spread through my body. This wasn’t like the other times though; it was much stronger. James paused and smiled at me before he opened the book and flipped through the pages. “It has a lot of information. What’s this poem in the back?”

            “It’s actually a prophecy.”

            “What do you think it means?”

            “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

            “Is that what intrigues you about this book?”

            “It might be, definitely is a factor.” I sighed and slouched back on the couch.

            “Anything you want to talk about?” James sat back and turned his head to get a better look at me. Those blue eyes had some sort of spell over me, I couldn’t look away and I wanted to be closer to him. He raised his eyebrows waiting for me to respond.

            “This isn’t really the way I was wanting to spend my birthday. Running from some psycho and hiding in the woods.”

            “I’m sorry this is the way it came to be, but you know that if you held a party, he would be there waiting. Once he finds out for sure that you’re not his mate, he might lash out at everyone attending.”

            “I know, I would never want to put anyone in danger.” I stopped to think hard about what I wanted to say next, because I didn’t want to come across as bratty. “I guess I expected something grand, but not really. I know Karter wants to make sure I have a good experience when it’s my time to transform, but now we can’t do whatever he had planned.”

            James was silent while he stared at me with sadness in his eyes. “I’m going to make sure you have a good birthday, no matter what the situation is. I promise.” I smiled at him and leaned over to rest my head on his shoulder. The electric current between us was flowing, and it felt nice. Something is tugging at me in my brain about the current, but I wasn’t sure what that was.

            I wasn’t sure when I fell asleep, but I was nudged awake by James and the sun was already down. He looked like he was just waking up as well. That was probably the best nap I ever had, and I don’t know if it was because of all the stress and I was extremely exhausted, or if it was because of being near James.

            “Karter and Jessica are here now, we can go over the plan one more time, and then we can get ready to head out.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me off of the couch. He didn’t let go of me until we reached the door. He opened it and ushered me out first and instructed me to go towards the conference room down the hall. Everyone was already there waiting for us. I went straight to Karter and hugged him; I needed my big brother right now.

            “What plan do you have in place in case Kyle shows up? I want to make sure that he won’t hurt anyone.” I looked up at him with wide teary eyes.

            “There’s a hidden bunker under the house that I never told you about. If Kyle is watching our house we’re going to make sure he sees Jessica as you to make him think we’re staying home, and we’ll go down to the bunker with the warriors who will be dressed up as James, Jade, and Chase. He probably knows by now that you four go everywhere together as much as you can.”

            “What if he breaks in and doesn’t see anyone? He could get angry and burn the house down.” I told him with fear in my voice.

            “The bunker will protect us from a fire, but I hope it doesn’t go that far.” He held me close and stroked my hair like he used to do when I was a child, and I had a bad dream or got scared of a storm.

            Everyone else started talking about the rest of the plans while I stayed in Karter’s arms. It was almost time for us to leave to go to the cottage. Joel and Ben already left to make sure the area was secured before we arrived. I had a feeling nothing would happen this weekend with my group, but I feared for the other groups remaining behind. This was going to be my first birthday without Karter around, and it was a pretty deal as far as birthdays go.

            “I promise we will celebrate as soon as this guy is taken care of and he’s no longer a threat.” He told me while we walked to the garage. Jessica was already dressed like me and she was wearing a wig to hide her white silvery hair. I gave her a hug and said thank you before turning to Clifford and Lilith and thanking them as well. Everyone wished me an early happy birthday as we got inside the car. Jade insisted on me sitting in the front passenger seat while she sat in the back with Chase. I think those two are mates, I’m not sure what makes me think that, but it’s a feeling I have when they’re together.

            With one last wave to everyone, we pulled out of the garage and we were off. It was around midnight when we left the castle. I wasn’t sure how long the drive would take, but no one seemed to want to talk right now, so James turned on the radio to drown out the silence. As we drove further away from the city, I got a strange feeling in my stomach, something was going to happen this weekend, and it was going to cause a lot of trouble soon. I wish I knew what it was going to be so I could stop it.